Five for Friday: Stats the Ravens need to improve next season

Karl Merton Ferron / Baltimore Sun

Obvious, yes, but clearly the most important. The Ravens were an Eric Weddle tackle at the goal line away in Week 16 from sitting tied atop the AFC North with the Steelers, but lost that crucial game in Pittsburgh and the season finale to the Bengals to finish 8-8 and outside the playoff picture.

Early 2017 projections by Football Outsiders have the Ravens again finishing with eight wins with a strength of schedule that ranks as the 19th hardest in the NFL, behind the division-winning Steelers (projected 13-3, SOS: 27) and Bengals (9-7, SOS: 26). That puts the Ravens once again on the bubble, finishing eighth in the conference and missing a wild-card berth, which are predicted to go to the Bengals and Chiefs. But the Chiefs have the fourth-toughest strength of schedule according to these rankings, which should give Ravens fans some hope for a return to the postseason.

Flacco threw for a career-high 4,317 yards, a Ravens single-season record, but did so on 672 attempts as the team often abandoned its running game. That’s 58 more attempts than his previous high, and it played a part in his throwing 15 interceptions. In Flacco’s two best statistical seasons -- 2010 and 2014 -- he threw 15 more touchdowns than interceptions (25 to 10 and 27 to 12, respectively). But in his other six full NFL seasons (excluding his injury-shortened 2015), he averaged only five more interceptions than touchdowns.

Flacco by no means has been an interception machine -- he has only been among the NFL’s top 10 in passes intercepted once, when he threw 22 in 2013, tied for second with Carson Palmer behind Eli Manning’s 27 -- but how well he takes care of the football has affected team performance. When Flacco has thrown at least 20 touchdown passes and 12 or fewer interceptions, the Ravens have averaged 10.6 wins. A slight improvement from last season’s 20-to-15 ratio could be a big lift.